Tuesday, December 09, 2003

First off is my crackpot idea. I decided to apply to be on the next Survivor television show. I haven't finished the application or made my 3 minute video yet. The reason it's a crackpot idea is that were I to get on the show, somehow making past the thousands of other applicants, it wouldn't matter to me how far I would go in the show. This is because they pay you like $8000 just for being on the show, along with the Letterman and morning show interview paychecks. Do you know how long it takes me to make eight thousand dollars? Like ten months or so. So just getting on the show would make me rich by my standards. Plus the book of poetry I could write about the experience. But mainly I'm doing it because it seems silly.
Anyway, back on earth I've had a few strange business items in the past two days. The first was that yesterday I ran across a stash of advanced reading uncorrected proofs of some books that are either just published or not yet published. I always feel strange selling these because they say right on them that they're not for sale. I half expect to run afoul of a lawyer any minute. One of them is by a self proclaimed famous chef that I haven't heard of for some reason. One is by some dude that's on the Trading Spaces show. And one, my favorite, is called Pandora's Keepers which is a book about the guys that made the atomic bomb in the first place. It's the uncorrected proof of a book that the publisher pulled because many authors came out and said that the book contained several plagiarized passages.
Today I got a book of Paul Newman's favorite recipies that, as far as I can tell, Newman had nothing to do with the writing or publication besides getting his picture on the cover. I also got a copy of "What Would Buddha Do" that has highlighted passages and margin notes that suggest to me that it was assigned reading in a religion class was owned by somebody who objected to buddhism. I assume that the previous owner had their own religious dogma because their main objection seems to be that they don't see how the buddha has the authority to say what he says. Interesting little story that copy tells. I also obtained a Henry Rollins poetry book that included a ticket stub to a Rollins spoken word event which got me all excited that it might be signed. But no.
Also had my first return due to a printing error. Apparently I sent out a book with several blank pages that should have had writing on them. I'm usually pretty good at checking my books, but that one flew low under my radar and now I have to eat the shipping (Sorry. I hate to mix metaphors like that.)
Then I had one of the biggest scares this afternoon. I bought a book and brought it home with large amount of other books. This book in particular seems to have, I think and might be erring on the side of caution, the dreaded book fungus. There's this fungus that makes ugly spots all over a book and spreads to any other book you set it near. The offending book is sitting next to me right now and I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't want to give it to the library because I buy books from them often. It's a cool little book of California Indian legends. I don't want to put it anywhere near any of my books, personal or inventory. Maybe I'll burn it and dance around like Pan.

0 Comments:

About Me

This is where I post internety things and commentaries. If you want to know about me, look at the vast archive of this blog or check out http://www.livejournal.com/users/possumbane/
I sell rare books for a meager living.
I'm terribly handsome and attractive.
That's all you really need to know when the chips are down.